Catti-Brie leaned against the wall of the tunnel and let herself slide down wearily to sit beside Wulfgar. The barbarian was seemingly sound asleep, and did not open his eyes to see her, but put a comforting hand on her knee. She smiled a little.
"We should come out of the tunnels soon," he murmured. "In the Moonwood."
"Soon is not soon enough," the girl sighed. "The longer we're away from Mithril Hall--"
"Mithril Hall will be fine in our absence for a few days."
"It will take more than 'a few days' to find Drizzt out there."
"And it will take more than a few days to set up our defenses, with or without us. We should not be missing any battles."
"Bah," Bruenor blustered. "It's our boys in the Hall who'll be missin' battles. Durned elf probably knows where to find all o' the fights."
Wulfgar nodded. "Chances are good," he agreed with a grin.
There was a long moment of silence that none of them felt the need to break. Nothing that any of the three companions were thinking was a secret to the others. They all feared, for Drizzt, for Mithril Hall, for themselves.
"Go to sleep, Cat," Bruenor said, as softly as his dwarven voice would allow. Catti-Brie leaned her head wearily against Wulfgar's shoulder and closed her eyes, immediately feeling sleep take her away from her troubles.
* * *

"We can't call Guen today," Innovindil remarked as she watched the drow ready himself for the evening's orc hunting. Drizzt nodded absently. The elf rolled her eyes.
"There are a lot of orcs out there, Drizzt."
"I've fought without Guenhwyvar before..." He looked at her. "We've fought without Guen before," he amended. She nodded.
"Little skirmishes, yes," she agreed. "But I can tell that that isn't what you're after today. The closest band of orcs is two score strong. That's twenty for each of us."
The drow shrugged. "There have been worse odds," he replied, his tone hinting that he was through with the conversation.
Not taking the hint, Innovindil crossed the cave to stand nearer to him. "Perhaps so," she said dubiously, "but at that point, you had your focus, Drizzt Do'Urden."
"I—"
"You're preoccupied with that dream," she interrupted him. He frowned. "You were saying things in your sleep," she explained. Innovindil gave him a sympathetic look. "Even if you hadn't been, though, I would know that you are not entirely with me here."
"I'll be fine," he insisted.
"Let's take a rest from it, for one night. Talk to me, my friend."
Drizzt wanted to agree with her. He wanted to take heed of his dream and move on from this grief that had him forever trying to drown his emotions in physical exhaustion. Even more strongly than that, though, he wanted to search out the orcs and kill every last one, if it took the next five hundred years.
"I cannot." He turned to the mouth of the cave. Innovindil caught his arm.
"What happened to that understanding?"
"I said I was moving towards it. I never claimed to have reached it."